At least 240 dead; government appeals for international help

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A man takes a break from cleaning a house swamped by flash floods brought on by Typhoon Ketsana, locally known as Ondoy, in a middle class residential neighborhood in Marikina city east of Manila on Monday.

MANILA, Philippines — Rescuers pulled more bodies from swollen rivers and debris-strewn streets to bring the death toll in massive flooding in the northern Philippines to 240 on Tuesday as residents dug out their homes from under carpets of mud.

The National Disaster Coordinating Council said Tuesday the homes of nearly 1.9 million people in the capital and surrounding areas were inundated, with nearly 380,000 people brought to schools, churches and other evacuation centers.

Overwhelmed officials have called for international help, warning they may not have sufficient resources to withstand another storm that forecasters say is brewing east of the island nation and could hit as early as Friday.

Tropical Storm Ketsana, which scythed across the northern Philippines on Saturday, dumped more than a month's worth of rain in just 12 hours, fueling the worst flooding to hit the country in more than 40 years.

Troops, police and volunteers have already rescued more than 12,359 people, but unconfirmed reports of more deaths abound, Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro said.

He told a news conference that help from foreign governments will ensure that the Philippine government can continue its relief work.

"We are trying our level best to provide basic necessities, but the potential for a more serious situation is there," Teodoro told a news conference. "We cannot wait for that to happen."

Scenes of devastation
The extent of devastation became clearer Monday as TV networks broadcast images of mud-covered communities, cars upended on city streets and reported huge numbers of villagers without drinking water, food and power.

Resident Jeff Aquino said floodwaters rose to his home's third floor at the height of the storm.

Aquino, his wife, three young children and two nephews spent that night on their roof without food and water, mixing infant formula for his 2-year-old twins with the falling rain.

Actress rescuedAmong those stranded by the floodwaters was young actress Christine Reyes, who was rescued by movie and TV heartthrob Richard Gutierrez from the rooftop of her home near Manila after she made a frantic call for help to a local TV network with her mobile phone.

Gutierrez, a close friend and Reyes' co-star in an upcoming movie, heard of her plight, borrowed an army speedboat and ferried Reyes, her mother and two young children to safety.

Rescuers pulled a mud-splattered body of a woman from the swollen Marikina river Monday. About eight hours later, police found three more bodies from the brownish waters.

The United States has donated $100,000 and deployed a military helicopter and five rubber boats manned by about 20 American soldiers from the country's south, where they have been providing counterterrorism training. The United Nations Children's Fund and the World Food Program have also provided food and other aid.

A relative grieves during the burial of landslide victims in Baguio, Philippines on Monday Oct. 12. Driving rain on the heels of back-to-back storms triggered dozens of landslides across the northern Philippines, burying hundreds of people, washing away villages and leaving almost an entire province under water.
(Aaron Favila / AP)
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Stranded commuters walk a foot path below a collapsed highway in the town of Tuba, north of Manila on Monday.
(Ted Aljibe / AFP - Getty Images)
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Demolished homes lie in the aftermath of a landslide that took place in La Trinidad near the mountain resort city of Baguio in northern Philippines on Monday.
(Bullit Marquez / AP)
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Jenelyn Tabigni of Rosales sits beside the lifted coffin of her mother, as her husband clears mud from their home on Saturday.
(Francis R. Malasig / EPA)
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Residents of the town of San Manuel panic Saturday upon hearing rumors that a nearby dam had cracked. Water has had to be discharged from several dams, but none have collapsed, at least so far.
(Mike Alquinto / AP)
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Sick children recuperate in a makeshift hospital as other evacuees line up to receive relief supplies (background) at an evacuation center in San Pedro, south of Manila, on Saturday.
(Bullit Marquez / AP)
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A child sits on mud in a town west of Manila on Friday, the same day the Philippines declared a nationwide state of calamity as a "super typhoon" bore down on the embattled nation.
(John Javellana / Reuters)
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Residents travel along floodwaters in Taytay township, east of Manila, after Typhoon Ketsana brought the worst flooding in more than 40 years.
(Bullit Marquez / AP)
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Filipino army soldiers try to calm the crowd waiting for relief distribution in devastated area in Taytay town as government relief agencies were taking advantage of the lull in bad weather to rush relief supplies to more than 3 million people affected by Ketsana.
(Dennis M. Sabangan / EPA)
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Cambodian victims of Typhoon Katsana wait for aid from the Red Cross, in Kampong Thom province, north of Phnom Penh, on Oct. 2. The storm caused the most destruction in the Philippines but also hit Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia.
(Tang Chhin Sothy / AFP - Getty Images)
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Flooding in the central province of Quang Nam taken from a military helicopter carrying relief aid to central Vietnam on Oct. 1. Vietnam intensified efforts to get food and water to stranded victims of Typhoon Ketsana.
(Hoang Dinh Nam / AFP - Getty Images)
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Filipinos duck under the edge of a barge that was swept ashore by flooding brought by tropical storm Ketsana in Marikina, an eastern suburb of Manila, on Sept. 30.
(Noel Celis / AFP - Getty Images)
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Cambodian military police officers carry coffins loaded with bodies of villagers who died during Typhoon Ketsana at Teuk Mileang village, in Sandan district, about 155 miles north of Phnom Penh, on Sept. 30.
(Heng Sinith / AP)
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A woman weeps near the bodies of people killed by Typhoon Ketsana at Sandane district of Cambodia on Sept. 30.
(Chor Sokunthea / Reuters)
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Filipinos salvage belongings on rafts through waist-deep floodwaters in devastated area caused by Storm Ketsana in Landayan village in San Pedro town, Laguna province, south of Manila, Philippines on September 30.
(Dennis M. Sabangan / EPA)
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People transport a motorcycle by using a boat down a flooded street in the pouring rain as Typhoon Ketsana passes through the central Vietnamese city of Hue on Tuesday, Sept. 29, 2009. Typhoon Ketsana killed at least 32 people in Vietnam when it slammed into the country after wreaking devastation in the Philippines three days previously.
(Hoang Dinh Nam / AFP - Getty Images)
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A couple rides a motorcyle in the pouring rain outside the city of Hue as Typhoon Ketsana passes through central Vietnam on Tuesday.
(Hoang Dinh Nam / AFP - Getty Images)
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This aerial photograph on Sept. 29 shows the town of Angono just east of Manila, still covered with floodwaters three days after tropical storm Ketsana hit the country, pouring a month's worth of rain in just nine hours.
(Jay Directo / AFP - Getty Images)
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Filipinos help each other in pulling a house that was uprooted by floods caused byTyphoon Ketsana in Quezon City, eastern Manila, Philippines on Sept. 28.
(Alanah M. Torralba / EPA)
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A relative reacts after confirming the identity of a loved one who was killed from the floods brought on by the rains of Typhoon Ketsana, locally known as Ondoy, inside a morgue in the town of Tanay, Rizal east of Manila on Sept. 28.
(John Javellana / Reuters)
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A man takes a break from cleaning a house swamped by flash floods brought on by Typhoon Ketsana in a middle class residential neighborhood in Marikina city east of Manila on Sept. 28.
(Erik De Castro / Reuters)
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Residents wait for rescuers at a building during flooding caused by Typhoon Ondoy in Cainta Rizal, east of Manila Sunday, September 27. Manila was blacked out and airline flights were suspended as a powerful typhoon battered the main Philippines island of Luzon, disaster officials said.
(Erik De Castro / Reuters)
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Filipinos sleep on chairs at an evacuation center in a public school in Marikina City, eastern Manila. At least 80 people were killed and some 70,000 famililes displaced when tropical storm Ketsana swept the country's capital.
(Alanah M. Torralba / EPA)
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Filipinos are drenched in mud as they try to recover belongings from damaged riverside homes in San Mateo, Rizal province in northeastern Manila, Philippines.
(Rolex Dela Pena / EPA)
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A victim of floodings is rescued in Pasig City, east of Manila. Authorities rushed rescue and relief to thousands of people who spent the night on the roofs of their submerged houses in Manila and surrounding provinces.
(Francis R. Malasig / EPA)
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Some people clamber on utility cables to stay above floodwaters while others wade neck-deep in Cainta Rizal, east of Manila.
(Erik De Castro / Reuters)
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A boy is lifted onto the roof of a building to escape the flooding in the Quezon City suburban of Manila. Nearly a month's worth of rain fell in just six hours Saturday, triggering the worst flooding in the Philippine capital in 42 years, which stranded thousands on rooftops in the city and elsewhere.
(Jay Directo / AFP - Getty Images)
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Thousands of people in the Philippine capital and nearby towns were marooned by flash floods after a strong tropical storm hit the main island of Luzon, disaster officials said.
(Romeo Ranoco / Reuters)
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Residents wait to be evacuated from a partially submerged house during flooding in Bocaue, north of Manila.
(Erik De Castro / Reuters)
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A Philippine Air Force aerial shot shows damaged houses in Marikina City, Metro Manila. More than 70 people were killed, Manila was blacked out and airline flights were suspended as a powerful tropical storm battered the main Philippines island of Luzon.
(Reuters)
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